From July 8, 2003 to July 20, 2004
In Iran, the traffic department commissioned a series of short animations that were both educational and entertaining. These animations, known as Siya Saketi animations, were broadcast on national television and aimed to create a culture of following traffic rules among viewers in the early 2000s. A private company in Tehran made most of the series, but the traffic department also gave us, a small team of three, the chance to make three episodes with our own tools and concepts. We realized that it was hard to compete with a large company that had more staff and resources, but we aimed to do a better job in terms of technical and visual quality. One of the issues with these animations was the low quality of their execution, for instance, the modeling quality was low and even many of them did not have proper lighting and rendering, but they made up for that by using funny stories and humorous dialogues. That’s why We decided to follow a different path and focus on the quality of the animation itself.
I worked with Alireza Meraji and Reza Ghobadinic almost full-time for about a year on this project. It was not easy, especially because we had limited hardware and we faced many challenges during the rendering process. We also had trouble finding people who could work with Maya software, which we used to make the animations. At that time, most of the 3D animators in Iran used 3D Studio Max software. However, it was a great experience for me and I learned things that had a significant impact on my ongoing work in the animation field.
Below is the video of the first episode that we finished at the beginning of 2004.
Below is also the video of the second episode, which we wrapped up in July of 2004.
In addition to other responsibilities, I had also undertaken the modeling of two main cars, one of them was an Audi TT, which I did through the NURBS modeling technique, which included the modeling of the exterior body and the interior parts of the car.
The other was a Mercedes-Benz E240, which was newly added to the traffic department’s fleet at that time, and having its model in the animation of the first episode was beneficial. I built this car using the NURBS modeling technique, which only involved the exterior body.
Below is the picture of the animation characters, named Keyvan, Vafa, Safa, and Ferry from right to left, among which I was the animator of the Vafa character.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me or leave them in the comments section below.